Meet Me at Diagon Alley
by EevyLynn
Summary: Professor Gold and his son Baelfire take a trip to Diagon Alley to prepare for a new year at Hogwarts. While stopping in Flourish and Blotts, Gold meets Hogwarts' new librarian, Belle French.
1. Chapter 1

The early morning light streamed through the curtains as Rumford Gold slowly opened his eyes. Remembering what day it was, Gold groaned and rolled over, hoping that if he went back to sleep it would delay the inevitable.

The sound of a door opening and closing in the hallway followed by another in quick succession blew that plan. Knowing his son would eventually come looking for him anyway, Gold slowly rose from his bed. Grabbing his cane from where he had propped it against his bedside table, he made his way to his closet to dress for the day.

He dressed himself in a midnight blue silk shirt with an emerald brocade waist coat. He pulled a pair of buckled knee-high boots over his dark leather pants before making his way to the kitchen.

The small stone cottage Gold shared with his son was on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. Being Defense Against the Dark Arts professor up at Hogwarts, Gold appreciated having his son so close to the school. Before Baelfire was old enough to attend, Gold would easily make it home every night that he didn't have patroles. His fireplace was connected by floo directly to the one in his office, so he was easily able to make it up to the school if need be. He and his ex-wife had always made sure their schedules lined up, so Bae could stay with her for the nights he did have to stay at the school. He supposed that was one good thing about working with the woman.

Milah was the Astronomy professor as well as the Ravenclaw head of house. With Gold being the Slytherin head of house, it lead to them spending a lot more time together than the average divorced couple, but at least it was a civil parting that enabled the two to continue an odd, but professional relationship. She, too, lived in the village, but she lived more in the center, loving being a part of the action, not that there was much in the small village.

Bae was already seated at the kitchen table when Gold walked in, scribbling intensely on a roll of parchment with his steadily shrinking stick of charcoal. Reaching down into the cabinet or pots and pans, Gold got started on breakfast.

The comfortable morning silence was broken by a knocking on the window. Gold watched in amusement as Bae jumped out of his seat and quickly made his way over to let Dove, the family's snowy owl, inside. As soon as Bae finished untying the letter from Dove's foot, the bird flew over to pech itself near Gold. With a bemused smile, Gold fed Dove a piece of bacon as Bae ripped open the letter and scanned it.

"So?" Gold prompted, his smirk never leaving his face at his son's excitement.

"She can make it!" Bae exclaimed. "She's staying at May Margaret's for the rest of the summer, and they have plans to go today as well!"

"Well, there you go," Gold replied as he carried their food to the table. "All of that worrying was for nothing."

"I wasn't worried," Bae quickly interjected, loading his plate with extra bacon.

Gold grunted noncommittally as he prepared his own plate.

"I wasn't!" Bae insisted.

Gold just glanced at the boy with raised brows.

After a moment, Bae amended, "If I _was _worried, it was _only _because I was concerned that she wouldn't be able to get her school supplies."

"Uh-huh," Gold bit his toast as he continued to study the boy.

"Papa!" Bae sighed. "I'm serious."

"Ok, son. Whatever you say," Gold said backing down, but not losing his smirk.

Checking his pocket watch, Gold said, "Finish up quickly, and go get dressed. I'd like to leave in less than an hour."

Gold brought his plate over to the sink and, with a flick of his wand, set the dishes to start cleaning themselves.

Bae shoveled the rest of his food into his mouth as Gold left the room.

Gold adjusted the cuffs of his long, black dragon hide coat before once again checking his pocket watch. Sighing, he turned to walk to the hallway when Bae came stumbling into the room fiddling with his cloak's clasp. Beckoning his son over, Gold hooked the golden handle of his cane over his arm to free up both hands. Reaching over, he straightened the bronze phoenix clasp that held together Bae's dark purple cloak.

"Ready?" Gold asked, moving his cane back to the ground.

Bae nodded and they walked over to the large fireplace. Reaching into the crystalline vase on the mantle, Gold grabbed a pinch of floo powder and threw it into the flames, turning them a bright green color. Nodding at Bae, Gold stepped in.

"Diagon Alley," he stated firmly causing the flames to rise up and engulf him.

After a few seconds, the flames died down back to their usual color, and then Bae followed suit.

Bae just barely managed to catch himself when he stumbled out of the grate. He brushed soot off his cloak as he stepped away, glancing around the packed pub for his father.

"Bae!" he heard from the direction of the bar.

Stepping around a tall wizard with a long pipe, Bae caught sight of a large burgundy top hat. Walking towards it, he found his father talking with the potions professor, Inally Jefferson. Jefferson turned and grinned at the boy as Bae got closer.

Bae always did like his father's eccentric friend. When the previous Defense Against the Dark Arts professor retired, the headmistress asked Bae's father to step in, leaving the Potions post open. Gold was hesitant when Jefferson, a young experimental potioneer, got hired on as his replacement. However, the young man's disposition quickly won over the older man, and Gold took him under his wing.

"Well, hello, Baelfire," he said with an extravagant bow.

"Hey," Bae grinned back.

"You ready for school to start?"

"Yes, sir. I am," he replied, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the stereotypical adult question.

"Good, good." Jefferson turned back to Gold, "Well, I must be going. Good talking to you, Rum. I'll see you both later."

With a light flick of his hand near his head, Jefferson bowed before turning and disapparating away.

* * *

**AN: We should see our favorite librarian in the next chapter! Thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

Being from one of the older families in the wizarding community, the Gold's fortune was locked in a vault deep in the lower caverns of Gringotts bank. Despite Rumford's father's best attempts, Malcolm was unable to squander the large fortune away due to his more respectable elder sister's efforts. Morag and her wife Agnes more than gladly took Rumford away from him as well before he could manage to ruin the boy, and the witches had raised him as best they could. Gold was always grateful for those two women because they enabled him to care for his own boy as best he could without leaving Bae wanting for anything.

Making their way out of the large marble bank, their coin purses filled with galleons, Bae caught sight of a couple of his friends, Kristoff and Robin. After reminding Bae to meet him at Madam Malkin's for new robes, he let the boy run off.

Smiling to himself, Gold made his way over to Flourish and Blotts.

The shop was filled already with students and their parents buying school textbooks. Gold dodged a couple on his way to the Defensive Magic section of the store. Judging by the completely mystified look on their faces, he surmised they must be the muggle parents of a younger student. Sure enough, when he glanced around a bookshelf, he saw the Hufflepuff head of house, Archibald Hopper, helping a small girl pick out her books. Catching the red heads eye, he nodded a hello before continuing on his way.

Upon reaching the shelf he was looking for, Gold put both hands on his cane as he read the titles. Grabbing _Jinxes for the Jinxed _and _A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions_, he debated on whether he wanted to go pay now or browse some more. Figuring he needed to kill time before meeting up with Bae, he headed over to the potions section.

He gladly took his time browsing through the books, enjoying the fact that it was in a more secluded section of the store away from the majority of the hustle and bustle. He noticed his rival in the field, Zoso, had just released a new book with his theories on modern potion making versus the time tested methods. Rifling through the tome, Gold decided to purchase it, so he could peruse it later in the comfort of his office, preferably while enjoying a glass of fine scotch.

After deciding on four other new potions books in addition to Zoso's, Gold turned to walk to the register. Trying to balance the seven books in one hand as he navigated the winding shelves was enough of a task that he didn't notice the small woman walk around the corner. He crashed into her sending all his books as well as her equally large stack of books tumbling to the ground.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the small woman cried as they bent down to grab their books.

Gold was just about to grumble something about how she should have watched where she going when he looked up and saw the bluest eyes he'd ever seen.

Shaking his head, Gold quickly pulled himself together before replying, "No, no. I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings."

Gathering his books, he handed her the last of hers before carefully pushing himself back up with his cane while trying to make it look as seamless as possible.

A cautious smile skittered across her face as she watched him.

"Professor Gold?"

Gold blinked in confusion a couple times before realizing who this beautiful creature in front of him was.

"Miss French?"

Smiling beautifully, Belle nodded. "I didn't think you remembered me!"

Remember her? How could he forget? She had been one of his absolute favorite students. She was beautiful in mind and spirit in addition to having a pretty face, and always had a smile to spare for everyone, including him. While she didn't quite have the aptitude for potions, she always gave it a valiant effort in his class. Her essays though were always beautifully written and had a unique perspective that he found refreshing.

She was still quite beautiful. He was trying hard to not notice how she now filled her robes out quite nicely. She was wearing a blue dress with light golden trim and matching robes that fit her in a way that showed off her womanly curves just enough.

Out loud, he replied as they began walking, "Of course I remember. I happen to be very good with names you know."

Yeah. That sounded good, or at least, he didn't think it sounded creepy. When she giggled in response, he tried not to breath a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, I remember." she said. She shook her head and looked down at her books, "Well, now I do at least."

She glanced over at the potions books in his arms and asked, "Preparing for the coming school year?"

Glancing at her face before looking ahead of him, he replied, "Yes, but not in the way you're probably thinking.

Her face crinkled adorably in confusion, and he continued, "I don't teach potions anymore."

"Wait? Really? You don't teach anymore?"

Gold thought for a second that she sounded slightly sad before he pushed the thought aside for being too ridiculous.

"No, I do still teach," he amended. "I just don't teach potions."

Gold explained how he had taken over the Defense Against the Dark Arts position and that Inally Jefferson was the new potions professor.

"Jefferson?" she said thoughtfully. "He was in Ravenclaw right?"

"Yes," Gold replied. "I believe he was a few years older than yourself."

"Yeah, he was," she said in confirmation. "Wow," she breathed, shaking her head, "I never would have thought of him as a teacher."

Gold nodded in agreement, "I was a little hesitant myself at first, but he proved himself. Not to mention, he definitely makes staff meetings more interesting."

"Well, I look forward to seeing that," Belle smiled.

Gold froze. He blinked at her before responding bewilderedly, "What?"

Belle turned back to look at him, and with a smile, she said, "I'm the new librarian."

"Really?" he blinked. "Since when?" And how come no one told him? He remembered something about the old librarian retiring, but last he heard, there were no decisions on who was going to replace her.

"Oh, I only just found out I got the position a couple of days ago," she said as they started walking again.

Gold hummed in understanding.

They continued to talk as they walked to the front. Belle asked about how he liked teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts versus teaching Potions, and he regaled her with tales of the students mishaps in his class, which occasionally caused her to giggle making him swell slightly in pride every time.

Gold was so entranced by his conversation with her that he barely noticed when they reached the front until it was his turn to pay. Fumbling into his coin purse, he hurriedly grabbed enough galleons to over the cost of his books.

It wasn't until he was following her to the door that Gold realized that their conversation would soon be cut short. Gold racked his brain to try and figure out a way to stretch out their time together, but everything he came up with sounded either pathetic or like an old lecher.

Belle's hand was reaching for the door when she suddenly stopped and turned to him, "I was going to stop by Fortescue's for some ice cream while I was here. I haven't been there in forever. Would you mind joining me?"

Gold was elated as his mind went blissfully blank at her question. She actually wanted to spend more time with him? How could that be? There had to be a reason other than spending with him. She probably just wanted some company so she wasn't there with nothing but students and their haggard parents. Yeah, that was probably it.

Realizing Belle was still staring at him waiting for an answer, Gold quickly nodded and, remembering his manners, quickly reached out to open the door. She beamed at him, crinkling her bright blue eyes adorably, and stepped through. He gulped before following her out.


End file.
